So you’re thinking something like: “What is that lady doing with an odd-looking oversized Ninja Turtle cuddly toy?” Except that it isn’t a cuddly toy. It’s a real live poodle. Meet Cindy, also known as Leonardoodle, and her owner, Sandy Paws. The picture before you is just one of Ms Paws’ executions of “creative grooming”. We’re really not sure if it’s ethical, but here are some more jaw-dropping examples of Sandy’s canine-sprucing makeovers on Cindy. People might claim that someone who does this sort of thing to dogs has got some answering to do. One dog-lover even wondered how she would like it if she were forced to have an all over body tattoo made up of stuff in dogs’ imaginations – bones, say, or rubber balls. A hair-brained remark if ever there was one – you see, Cindy has lots of guises, none of them permanent – though you can see what the guy was getting at. In any case, clearly the judges don’t see things the same way as the critics. Yes, folks, this is creative grooming at it’s finest; award winning creative grooming. It seems Sandy and Cindy have been scooping prizes everywhere from Burbank in the duo’s native California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, and you can’t fault the skill of Sandy’s handiwork – or its, erm, imagination. Who would ever think of transforming a dog into a camel – or a dragon? Now don’t get us wrong, there are heaps of good reasons for conventional dog grooming, including the fact that it cleans the dog, improves the health of its skin and coat, and lessens the chance of skin problems. “But not when you’re using dyes in every colour of the rainbow!” cried one observer in horror. “And just look at that thing, reduced to the status of a chicken, or a punk rocker – I don’t know which is worse!” In Sandy Paws’ defence, she claims to use only semi-permanent hair colour, blo-pens, coloured artists’ chalk with a smidgen of hairspray, temporary spray colour – what else? – oh yes, and all the “special touches” – add-ons such as feathers, pompoms and plastic flowers. A veritable arsenal of colourants, props and adhesives, then, though apparently nothing Sandy wouldn’t use on herself. That’s OK then.
A space dog-essey One other point made by those who see grooming in general as an important part of dog care is that it helps to build a relationship between the dog and owner. Well, judging from the photos, Sandy is certainly enjoying the bonding sessions. But is it us, or does Cindy look as though she’s not quite so pleased to be there?
Peacock dog For those who are left a little queasy by the whole concept – if not by the garish colours then by its syrupy beauty queen sheen – the good news is that there’s a whole sub-culture out there. 25 years young and with a readership of 20,000, magazine Groomer to Groomer is a mouthpiece for all things groom-tastic. Scary? Needless to say, Sandy and Cindy have made the front cover.
He goes by the name of Ugly Bat Boy - no prizes for guessing why.This follicly-challenged feline has become a tourist attraction because of his bizarre appearance.Eight-year-old Ugly, whose breed is not known, spends most of his time keeping warm by sitting on a computer at the Exeter Veterinary Hospital in New Hampshire. Staff at the veterinary hospital have even been forced to put up fliers saying he's perfectly normal - just unattractive.They claim he makes up for his terrible looks by having inner beauty and a nice disposition.He's also turned into something of a tourist attraction in Exeter, New Hampshire, America.'People come in and take pictures of him on their cell phones,' staff member Christie Hartnett said. 'He's just great. The impression from clients that come in is he's not real because he just sits so still. 'When he does move, he scares them, but they still think he's mesmerizing.' Ugly and his sister, who only survived a few weeks, were both born without fur. And although he may not look like an ordinary cat, staff at the hospital say he behaves exactly like every other feline they've ever known. He loves attention and is very friendly.
Rescuers used jet skis and human muscle to save dozens of whales and dolphins stranded on a beach in southern Australia on Monday, officials and news reports said.
The 194 pilot whales and half a dozen bottlenose dolphins became stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's King Island on Sunday evening. Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania as whales go by during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why it happens.
It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to get stranded together.
Chris Arthur, of Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, said 54 whales and seven dolphins were still alive when the rescue effort began. By late Monday, 48 animals had been returned to the sea by officials and more than 100 King Island residents who had volunteered to help.
Backhoes dug trenches in the sand that allowed water to get close to the whales, as volunteers doused them with water and draped wet fabric over them to keep them cool. Groups of volunteers used stretchers to lug dolphins into the shallows, and other officials used small boats and a jet ski to pull whales out to sea.
Rescuers were hopeful they would stay away from the shore.
'It's too early to say yet but it's been a very, very positive day,' Shelley Davison, a Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
It was not clear why the animals had beached on the island, halfway between Tasmania and mainland Australia. The Examiner, a Tasmanian newspaper, reported that the animals were caught by a very low tide.
In January, 45 sperm whales died after becoming stranded on a remote Tasmanian sandbar, even though rescuers worked for days to keep them cool and wet as they tried to move them back to the open water.
Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline in Tasmania. A week earlier, rescuers saved 11 pilot whales among a pod of 60 that had beached on the island state.
A bizarre, psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species, according to a scientific journal.
The frogfish - which has a swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes that extend from its aqua eyes to its tail - was first discovered by scuba diving instructors off Ambon island in eastern Indonesia.
They contacted Ted Pietsch from the University of Washington, who submitted DNA work on the fish to the journal Copeia this month. The fish - which the University of Washington professor has named 'psychedelica' - is a frogfish of the genus, Histiophryne. The fish's stripes were probably intended to mimic coral.
It has fins on both sides of its body that have evolved to be leg-like. But it has several behavioral traits not previously known to other frogfish, Professor Pietsch said.
Each time the fish strike the seabed, for instance, they push off with their fins and expel water from tiny gill openings to jet themselves forward. Coupled with an off-centered tail, it causes them to bounce around in a bizarre, chaotic manner. Mark Erdman, a senior adviser to the Conservation International's marine program, said it was an exciting discovery.
'I think people thought frogfishes were relatively well known and to get a new one like this is really quiet spectacular. It's a stunning animal,' he said.
'It also speaks to the tremendous diversity in this region and to fact that there are still a lot of unknowns here - in Indonesia and in the Coral Triangle in general.'
The fish, which has a gelatinous fist-sized body covered with thick folds of skin that protect it from sharp-edged corals, also has a flat face with eyes directed forward, like humans, and a huge, yawning mouth.
Two hotel chefs today claimed to have toppled the record for the world's tallest pancake stack.
Sean McGinlay and Natalie King of Glasgow's Hilton Grosvenor hotel measured their pancake tower at 29.5 inches (75cm) - beating the current title by 0.4in.
The chefs mixed about 100 eggs, more than 17 pints of milk, 11lbs of flour and 6.6lbs of butter for the challenge, a hotel spokeswoman said.
The hotel's general manager Stuart Nelson said: 'It was a bit shaky towards the end but somehow we managed to pull it off.
'Special thanks must go to Sean McGinlay and the kitchen team, who have spent a great deal of time this week perfecting their pancake recipes and stacking techniques.'
According to Guinness World Records, the current official record stands at 29.1in (74cm), achieved in Slovenia in August 2008.
It seems like only yesterday every film to hit the big screen contained a compulsory parkour sequence. Maybe now, though, the French-born art of movement (l’art du déplacement) is going back where it belongs – to its roots, to the streets. But there’s a reason why parkour became such a craze so quickly. With stripped-down simplicity, and no props necessary, it’s the ultimate activity for rewarding a heightened awareness of the spaces and environments we inhabit. Or not, as the case may be. When it’s executed well, parkour is like the archetypal poetry in motion, its practitioners exercising sublime balance and athleticism as they overcome obstacles with efficient ease. On the other hand, when it goes wrong it shows us up for the supremely bungling apes we are. Now, we sincerely hope for the sake of the guy performing a face plant here that this video is a stunt – and parkour traceurs may contest that it’s very bad example of their art – but sometimes you’ve just got to marvel at the folly of urban life.
Of all the flukes seen on a golf course, greenkeeper Richard Mitchell can claim one of the strangest.
As he took his chainsaw to a leylandii tree, he hit the exact spot where a ball was embedded in the wood and sliced through it.
The ball apparently lodged in a fork of the tree many years ago when a golfer hooked a drive on the first tee. The conifer grew around the ball and it remained hidden in the screen of 15 trees. Trimmed, sanded and varnished, it is to become a rather unusual trophy board at Eaton Golf Club in Norwich.
Mr Mitchell discovered the ball last month after he felled the 40ft trees, planted 37 years ago, and began cutting the timber into 4ft lengths for firewood.
The piece of wood with the half ball visible is being preserved and varnished by former club captain Jim Cook who is a skilled woodworker.
It will then be kept behind the bar and used to record the names of everyone who gets a hole-in-one on the 198-yard ninth hole. Peter Johns, the manager of the £675-a-year club, said: 'It is just an incredible find.
'We think it came off the first tee. It must have lodged in a fork or embedded itself in the trunk and the tree grew round it.
'If Richard had cut the trunk an inch or two either way we'd never have known it was there.'
Jaws outstretched, this hungry hippopotamus seems to have found an easy target.
But with extraordinary skill, the wildebeest appears to outmanoeuvre his 3,300lb attacker at the very last moment.
However the stricken animal is frozen by fear in the next picture as the hippo catches it and bites it on the rear. Although the wildebeest looks doomed it apparently escaped the attack which took place on the banks of the Mara river in the Masai Mara game reserve, Kenya.
The hippo would not have been attempting to satisfy its hunger as they are in fact vegetarians.
It is much more likely the grumpy-looking beast was angry that its territory had been encroached.
The wildebeest is one of 1.5 million on the final stretch of their migration south from Tanzania in search of fresh grazing.
What is this? Get a graffiti artist week? In the space of seven days, one of the world’s most famous street artists has been in various brushes with the law. Late last week, Shepard Fairey, creator of the ‘Hope’ portrait of Barack Obama that showed up everywhere in the election campaign, was arrested in Boston. The charges of vandalism relate to Fairey’s earlier, equally iconic work, the ubiquitous ‘Obey’ street art campaign. The arrest came just days after Fairey was in the headlines for allegedly illegally using a photo of Obama owned by the Associated Press.
Not keeping the peace: ‘Obey’-based Fairey piece in Boston Fairey was arrested on the graffiti charges while on his way to Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art for the opening night of his first major museum exhibition in the US last Friday. He is suspected of damaging property with graffiti derived from the ‘Obey’ street art imagery, and one of the warrants dates back to 2000.
From street art campaigns… Stickers and stencils of the ‘Obey’ design, which show an image of famed professional wrestler Andre the Giant, began to appear in major cities in the US and beyond in the 80s and 90s. With no clear political message, ‘Obey’ was nevertheless, as Robert L. Pincus pointed out, “suggestively antiauthoritarian”. The propaganda-like sloganeering and wink towards corporate commercialism resonated with a generation of young people.
…To election campaigns Obey’ seems a far cry from the more mainstream and explicitly political ‘Hope’, which some say was a powerful enough symbol to be instrumental in Obama’s election success. The stylised portrait, which appeared on thousands of posters and t-shirts and now hangs in the US National Portrait Gallery, drew a personal note of thanks to Fairey from the now President.
Spot the difference: the AP original and the new ‘Hope’ But this was no help to Fairey as earlier last week the Associated Press demanded compensation for alleged copyright infringement. The AP claims that because the original photo of Obama was theirs, Fairey needed permission to use it. Fairey’s lawyers have countersued, saying that the use of the image falls under ‘fair use’, whereby the public can copy work without permission for purposes such as parody or education.
Institutionalised? Fairey in the Institute of Contemporary Art Whatever the outcome of this legal wrangling, it doesn’t seem to have been Fairey’s week – and people could be forgiven for seeing this as more than mere coincidence. The arrest in particular has led to speculation that there are those in Boston’s establishment who aren’t best pleased that a known purveyor of graffiti should be getting the cultural acclaim of his own exhibition in their city. But Fairey – who has had countless run-ins with the police, and also has a track record as a guerrilla marketer – must by now be used to getting it in the neck for his activities.
No Protection? Orr’s take on the giant image
Fairey is not without his less conventional opponents either. Other artists have criticised him for being something of a magpie who simply appropriates the work of others without adding enough to make his pieces original. Ironic, then, that last year Fairey threatened his own legal action against designer Baxter Orr for using ‘Obey’ in a parody called ‘Protect’, in which the graphic of the giant is covered with a respiratory mask. It’s difficult to tell who’s right and who’s wrong while people appear to rip images off like so many layers of wheatpasted posters. One thing seems sure, though: when street art goes mainstream, the knives come out from one place or another.
There are baby bumps and then there are baby bumps.
But there must be few women in history who have ever had a baby bump quite like octuplets mother Nadya Suleman.
These extraordinary pictures show the 33-year-old baring her stomach eight days before having her brood. Smiling proudly, the mother-of-14 hoists her green patterned smock to show off her hugely distended stomach to the camera.
The photographs, which first went up on tmz.com, show the strain her body was under as she reached the end of her record-breaking pregnancy.
Single mother Suleman, who already had six children by IVF, used a fertility doctor to give birth to her babies.
The new pictures surfaced on the day it emerged she had fled her house in Whittier, California, to go into hiding with her older children after receiving death threats.
She has even taken on the services of a security firm to ensure the safety of her family.
Her publicist Michael Furtney said: 'There has been some really nasty stuff about wanting to physically harm Nadya, and outrageous statements about both her and her children.
'We have a security firm that we've been working with and they have certainly made contact with the police about the threats. I don't know where that will go, but we'll see'
Much of the anger surrounds the eight babies' conception by IVF. Yesterday, Suleman launched a website, encouraging readers to give her money via credit cards and send parcels.
The American mother, who already receives a raft of state handouts to care for her growing brood, also left a message to well-wishers.
'We thank you for the love and good wishes sent to us from around the world,' she said.
And she adds that the octuplets, born on January 26, are 'all healthy and growing stronger by the day.'
The babies have been named Noah, Maliah, Isaiah, Nariah, McCai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Miss Suleman has three disabled children
Despite previously insisting that she will not be claiming benefits, her publicist confirmed that she already receives food stamps and child disability payments to help feed and care for her six other children.
But he would not disclose the nature of the disabilities, or the type or sum of the payments.
The news came as it was revealed that all of Suleman's children were conceived with help from the same fertility doctor - Dr Michael Kamrava.
The 57-year-old, who runs a clinic on glamorous Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, is being investigated by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Dr Kamrava, who helped pioneer embryo implantation, is a controversial figure in the field.
'He's tried some novel techniques and some of those methods have been controversial,' said Dr John Jain, founder of Santa Monica Fertility Specialists.
He criticised the decision to implant so many embryos, saying: 'I do think that this doctor really stepped outside the guidelines in a very extreme manner, and as such, put both the mother and children at extra high risk of disability and even death.’
Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, a professional acquaintance of Dr Kamrava's, said he worked to develop an embryo transfer device that allows doctors to implant an embryo - or sometimes sperm with an unfertilised egg - directly into the uterine lining.
In Leonardo Da Vinci's original Mona Lisa, the painting's subject stands quietly alone, hands folded, with that famously enigmatic smile gently playing around her lips.
But in a bizarre new version of the timeless masterpiece - made entirely out of Lego - the expression has become a cheerful smirk while her carefully shaded skin tone has been replaced with a uniform sheen of yellow.
This rather odd take on the classic artwork is the idiosyncratic hobby of Italian artist Marco Pece, who uses the iconic plastic bricks to recreate versions of the world's great paintings.
But whether his creations do justice to the originals or not, the former banker has become an internet hit with his instantly recognisable Lego versions of the classics.
Tens of thousands of people from around the world have viewed the modern interpretations of the classic works made out of the simple plastic bricks.
He posts his work on Flickr under the pseudonym Udronotto.
The former bank worker has recreated Da Vinci's Last Supper, with Christ and his disciples suitably attired and bearded.
While he has done his best to capture Mona Lisa's famous enigmatic smile his use of the distinctive yellow-faced Lego characters to recreate Grant Wood's American Gothic is considerably more effective.
Marco, 45, has also redone Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks in his own inimitable style.
But Marco has also come right up to date by recreating contemporary Scots artist Jack Vettriano's Bluebird classic, complete with a Lego car.
The artist gave up his job in a bank three years ago to concentrate on his Lego interpretations of existing masterpieces.
He said: 'I wanted to combine my love of art with a modern and unusual expressive technique.
'These reconstructions are done with a lot of attention to detail using Lego materials.
'The various stages of reconstruction are photographed individually then combined on a computer.'
He added: 'A reconstruction in Lego usually takes me about nine days in total.
'I have taken part in five exhibitions and have sold several photos of my work and this is because of the success I've had on the web.
So you’re thinking something like: “What is that lady doing with an odd-looking oversized Ninja Turtle cuddly toy?” Except that it isn’t a cuddly toy. It’s a real live poodle. Meet Cindy, also known as Leonardoodle, and her owner, Sandy Paws. The picture before you is just one of Ms Paws’ executions of “creative grooming”. We’re really not sure if it’s ethical, but here are some more jaw-dropping examples of Sandy’s canine-sprucing makeovers on Cindy.
People might claim that someone who does this sort of thing to dogs has got some answering to do. One dog-lover even wondered how she would like it if she were forced to have an all over body tattoo made up of stuff in dogs’ imaginations – bones, say, or rubber balls. A hair-brained remark if ever there was one – you see, Cindy has lots of guises, none of them permanent – though you can see what the guy was getting at.
In any case, clearly the judges don’t see things the same way as the critics. Yes, folks, this is creative grooming at it’s finest; award winning creative grooming. It seems Sandy and Cindy have been scooping prizes everywhere from Burbank in the duo’s native California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, and you can’t fault the skill of Sandy’s handiwork – or its, erm, imagination. Who would ever think of transforming a dog into a camel – or a dragon?
Now don’t get us wrong, there are heaps of good reasons for conventional dog grooming, including the fact that it cleans the dog, improves the health of its skin and coat, and lessens the chance of skin problems. “But not when you’re using dyes in every colour of the rainbow!” cried one observer in horror. “And just look at that thing, reduced to the status of a chicken, or a punk rocker – I don’t know which is worse!”
In Sandy Paws’ defence, she claims to use only semi-permanent hair colour, blo-pens, coloured artists’ chalk with a smidgen of hairspray, temporary spray colour – what else? – oh yes, and all the “special touches” – add-ons such as feathers, pompoms and plastic flowers. A veritable arsenal of colourants, props and adhesives, then, though apparently nothing Sandy wouldn’t use on herself. That’s OK then.
One other point made by those who see grooming in general as an important part of dog care is that it helps to build a relationship between the dog and owner. Well, judging from the photos, Sandy is certainly enjoying the bonding sessions. But is it us, or does Cindy look as though she’s not quite so pleased to be there?
